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Where are Kevin and Ruth right now?San Ramon Hotel and RV Park, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.

Where are they going next? Zinapecuaro, Michoacan, Mexico.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Playa Troncones

We were up early yesterday morning, and by 7:00am we were pretty much ready to leave…except that it still wasn’t light enough! We waited another 20 minutes before pulling out.

We made our way through the busy north part of Uruapan without a problem, and pulled into a gas station just before the toll road. Put in 1,000 pesos worth of gas ($77 for 103 litres, or about $0.747 per litre) and paid for it with a credit card. No problem this time, however you need to be prepared to pay for your gas with cash. Sometimes your card will get declined through no fault of your own, or their machine is not working, or they ran out of paper for the machine to give you a receipt. Usually in the larger centers there is no problem.

The toll highway starts just east of Uruapan, and takes you all the way to the coast. For Sherman, the cost was 339 pesos ($25.76) for the 200 km (124 mile) drive. It was downhill most of the way, with a drop in elevation of 5,600 feet so Sherman did pretty well in the gas mileage department! Here`s some scenery from the drive...

Avocado orchards on both sides of the highway. We have seen trucks by the side of the road selling avocados for 15 pesos ($1.14) per kilo. That would be about 5 avocados.

We arrived at the beach town of Playa Troncones at around noon. Parked Sherman near the entrance to town and went for a walk looking for a suitable overnight spot. There is one small RV park at the south end of town but we knew in advance that his daily rate is 250 pesos ($19) so we went looking for other options. Sure enough, there is a little restaurant called “Restaurante Jaqueline” on the main drag. They have a nice little swimming pool and an empty parking lot. For 100 pesos ($7.60) per night, we are happy campers. Not busy at all, although the lady here says it gets busier on the weekends.

We are only about 20 kms (12 miles) line of site up the beach from the resorts of Ixtapa and we can see the big hotels from here.

After lunch we went for a walk down the beach. It’s a nice walkking beach…flat and hard packed sand. Some gringo beach homes, and a few small boutique type of hotels, but none of them look busy. We saw the RV Park, and there were 3 or 4 rigs there. Didn’t look like our kind of place and we didn’t go in to say hello. Maybe today we will have a closer look.

Our beach for the next couple of days.

We walked to the lagoon at the end of the beach. There, we saw what looked like many turtle egg shells and we joked that maybe they were crocodile eggs! I looked up and said “holy crap!” because there in the lagoon about 10 yards in front of us was this big guy…

Spent the rest of the afternoon in our chairs under the restaurant shelter. Saw two whales, but they were only quick sightings and after surfacing they spent their time under water.

The restaurant dog was quick to become friends with us.

We are only about 250 kms (155 miles) from Acapulco now. We have to be there on Tuesday, but we will break the drive into two days so we will probably stay here until Saturday or Sunday.

Only problem here is we don’t have internet! No cell service, and only one secured wi-fi signal coming from somewhere. Gonna have to see if there’s an internet café somewhere! (As you can see, I found one!)

Did you take Hwy 37 to the coast. The whales travel each day a reef off the beach each day. You can have a small boat to take you out to the reef to get a closier view for their midmorning pass. Go up the beach the other way around the point for a great setting. Also some good snokering up by the point.

Also come down from where you are staying to the beach road. Turn right go approximately 600 yards on the right just past a deep in the road where the rain water crosses the road is a two story cafe. Downstairs is where breakfast is served and upstairs is where dinner is served. You can meet some nice people there.

If you are heading south to Acapulco, I might recommend 2 stops. 1 just south of Zihuatanejo and Petatlan is a little town called Juluchuca. You will recognize this industrious village by the stands on both sides of the road selling coconut candies and lagoon salt. The candies are made in 3 cottage factories in town. The salt is from a lagoon just down the road (the best salt is made in Calcium and Clay, handmade ponds; most others are dried in Plastic, black plastic lined drying ponds. Yuck. So ask for the stand of Donia Quintina, you can be 100% sure here salt is the pure stuff. If you want to venture in, go check out Playa Viva - Sustainable Boutique Hotel about 3 km in, follow sign, cross the river and head to the beach. The next location is San Francisco or Playa Michigan. I've not been but hear it is gorgeous. Once in Acapulco, if you like tacos, head for Tacostumbres and get the tacos al pastor.

A bit of a cold front going through this area for the next day or two. Overcast almost all day, and a high of about 17C (64F). But that didn...

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